Recommended Reading: Starr and Rehavi on Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice Process

Professor Sonja B. Starr and Professor M. Marit Rehavi have posted a fascinating new study on SSRN entitled Racial Disparity in the Criminal Justice Process: Prosecutors, Judges, and the Effects of United States v. Booker. It presents new empirical research on the effects of United States v. Booker on racial disparity in the federal criminal justice system (including in prosecutorial decision-making). The study challenges current thinking, finding that Booker has reduced –rather than exacerbated — racial disparity. Professor Starr, my brilliant former colleague and faculty member of the University of Michigan Law School, presented this research in August at the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference and in October at the National Sentencing Policy Institute, another federal judicial conference that also includes the US Sentencing Commission.